NOTE: In April 2023, Gisele Lara Pierce legally changed her name to Gisele Marina Razo Lara in Harris County Superior Court. At the time of her death, she was listed as Gisele Lara Pierce. WRBL has changed this story to reflect the name change.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Six months after her daughter was shot to death on campus at Columbus State University, a grieving mother is still searching for answers.

Gisele Lara was killed Aug. 18, 2023 outside the Lenior Hall annex on the CSU main campus. The Muscogee County Coroner’s Office says it was an apparent murder-suicide. Another CSU student, 25-year-old Nathaniel Janik was found dead on the scene of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“She had such a bright future, such a bright future, such a good person. She never did anything wrong.”

Those are the words of a grief-stricken mother searching for answers in her daughter’s death. And the bulk of the information has been slow to come.

On the day of the shooting, Columbus State police turned the shooting investigation over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Six months later, the GBI says the probe is continuing and has not released a final report.

Rebecca Lara has received some information from Columbus State, but she has not seen or been briefed on the GBI report. She says the GBI had access to her daughter’s cell phone in the aftermath of the shooting. That information has not been released.

“Without getting real information, you start filling in the blanks. And then you see footage of it. I want the reports, I want the witness statements supposedly somebody saw it. I don’t have that interview.”

Rebecca Lara said each day that passes without the full story only adds to what is already an enormous pain.

“You know, I’m her mom and I need to know everything,” she said this week. “I birthed her. And they are like, ‘Oh, don’t look at the pictures. They will traumatize you.’ But that’s my baby. I should have been there. She should have been protected. It’s a school. You don’t think things happen and it’s just that it is happening.”

WRBL reached out to the GBI in an attempt to get the investigative report. Here’s what a GBI spokesman told us.

Here is the GBI statement released Tuesday by Nelly Miles, the director of the Office of Public & Governmental Affairs.

“This case is still open pending forensic testing results,” the statement read “We have been in communication with the family throughout the investigation. Since the case is still open, we are not in a position to release the case file or investigative details. Once the case is closed, it can be released following an open records request.”

Rebecca Lara – who lives in California — was in Columbus this week to try and connect with her daughter’s memory. There is a small memorial outside the science building near the spot where Gisele died.

Gisele would have turned 22 this week.

“To me, she was everything,” Rebecca Lara said. “She was a special human being. I was always in awe of her because she was very bright and had a big heart. She had a lot of friends. Her family was number one. It’s one reasons why I’m here, because we’re all we’re just devastated. This just devastated our family back in California.”

A devastated mother just wants answers so she can move past the most painful chapter in her life. And she and other family members have been pressing the GBI for those answers.

“Initially, I was told it was an open and closed case,” Rebecca Lara said “They had the suspect murdered, right? He killed himself and that it wasn’t going to be like such a big investigation. … I just got an email on Feb. 6 that says they’re closing my open records request because it’s still an open investigation.” “

That did not sit well with Rebecca Lara.

“And I just feel like, What? What are you talking about? … I sent an email back saying, can you please have some compassion for her family that, you know, we’re not here, we’re not cool and we don’t know. We miss her. We feel awful, just awful.”

She says she was told she would have to resubmit her Open Records Request to get the investigative report when it’s completed.

“Because it says once you submit, you wait eight weeks,” she said. “Because I’m thinking, ‘Oh, now it’s going to be February. I can’t hear anything until April. So, I said, ‘Please, can you put is a top waiting list.’ And no reply.”